Canterbury has already had a great year after their second album Heavy In The Day was a big hit with fans and critics.
They have just kicked off a tour with Deaf Havana before they embark on their own headline tour at the end of the month.
We caught up with Luke from the band to chat about the forthcoming shows, the success of 2012 and what lies ahead.
- You are about to get back on the road and support Deaf Havana so how excited are you about touring with them?
Very excited. As we speak we are in transit on the way up to Coventry for the first date.
We are so excited to part of a line up like this and the re-birth of British rock that is coming out at the moment; Deaf Havana re really leading the pack with the big shows that they are playing. So it is amazing to be part of that and we are really excited.
- How did the support slot come about?
We don’t know them especially well but they are peers of ours and we play in the same kind of circles.
But they just outright offered it to us - just after the album came out this summer we got an email off them offering us the tour. We are really chuffed about it.
- But at the back end of the month you will also be setting out on your own headline tour of the UK so what can people expect from the show if they have a ticket and perhaps haven’t seen you live before?
It’s a high energy show and it is all about band and fan coming together - there are no big rooms in there at all so it is all pretty small club rooms; which is what we prefer to do when it is a headline tour.
There are no barriers or distances between the stage and that give it more of an organic feel - just the real essence of the true UK rock scene. It’s really exciting.
We also have some great support bands who are other great up and coming British bands as well. If you haven’t already got a ticket then I advise people to get a ticket because it is going to be a great few weeks.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question really Mallory Knox & Scholars are going to be touring with you so how much are you looking forward to getting out on the road with them?
Scholars have been friends of ours for years now and we use to play a lot of local shows with those guys so we thought it would be cool to ask them again to come back out with us.
Mallory Knox are making waves at the moment and are just a really promising band on this emergence of British rock - which has really almost started to take over everything now.
The music is coming into the mainstream with bands like Young Guns and twin Atlantic breaking the radio barriers and really moving forward with huge gigs and stuff. So it just this wake of really great and young UK bands and Mallory Knox are one of them.
- As you say this really is an emerging genre at the moment and quickly becoming more mainstream so what is it like being part of all that?
It is just so exciting. We have been a band for five or six years now out on the road and when we first started out we had dreams and aspirations and stuff but we never thought the alternative scene in this country was going to much bigger than it ever was.
Now it is the last couple of years with bands such as Twin Atlantic and Young Guns getting on to the radio and stuff it has just been so exciting to see the fans gripping hold and bands like that being able to sell out huge venues around this country and then spread further a field to mainland Europe and the rest of the world.
And to see the fans latch on and the incredibly passionate fans that we and all these bands have it is just a great place to be right now.
- So what do you think has driven this change and this emergence of the alternative scene?
I think it’s probably just good and organic music. For the rock influences everyone would look to the States for a time, five or six years ago, as they were leading the way with the pop-punk movement and then the rockier stuff.
But now it seems like over in America they are still doing that same thing but here there is this new age sound that is coming out and all of these bands are carving their paths through.
It is people just taking a hold I think as there comes a time perhaps people can hear enough electronic music and they want to hear some organic stuff with real instruments. I think it is just a natural progression really.
- The tour is in support of your album Heavy In The Day - which was released earlier this year - so how have you found the response to the record overall?
It has been amazing; I don’t think we could have asked for me. We took a gamble I suppose in releasing it ourselves throughout own label - I suppose we were lucky enough to do it in a way because of the freedom that we had.
Before it was out we were getting some press reviews and things and we couldn’t quite believe the clean sweep we got of positivity; it was quit mind-blowing actually. But as soon as it was released the fans’ outpouring of adoration was incredible.
When you have written something and it has taken you a couple of years to record it and release it - it has been almost a self-indulgent exercise up until then - but when people are telling you that it is making a real difference to their lives it is quite a hard feeling to explain really. It is quite touching.
- You have mentioned that it is an independent release so I was wondering why you chose to go down that path?
It is kind of a bit of both sides really. It was sort of out of necessity because there wasn’t really anything else that was suitable - there were a couple of offers that we had from labels and things that we had but none of it really felt right and in the organic vein that we wanted.
We have always been a home-grown, DIY band - maybe not in the music but in the attitude towards it all - and that is really what we believe in. To be able to pick your release date rather than be shelved because the new Mariah Carey album has to come out before yours is something that we just didn’t want.
We have had friends who get the big record deal, fly away on holiday and have a great time on the expenses of some other guy but then their album doesn’t come out for two years and then they disappear. I think that that must be more heart-wrenching than not getting the deal in the first place.
There are so many disasters and the industry is so shark infested that we thought ’well we have got a bit of business not lets just go for it ourselves’ - we can only blame ourselves if it a failure rather than being angry at someone else (laughs).
- 2012 has been a busy and successful year for you and the band so how would you sum up the way things have gone so far?
It has just gone from strength to strength really. At the beginning of the year it was all up in the air about how we would even get this album released and we got our act together - it had been a two or three year gap between our first album and this one.
The foundation that Heavy In The Day has given us this year is just such an energising thing to be able to build on now and keep the momentum up and release new music as soon as possible. It is really exciting.
It is a struggle sometimes because, like I say, we are our own boss and so we have to think about the business side of things rather just being on the road and touring.
But it is such a great foundation and we have learnt a hell of a lot this year and we are enjoying ourselves as well - it has been brilliant.
- And you are also about to release new single Gloria so what can we expect from this track?
It is one of our mellower tracks but it has quite an epic and quite anthemic side to it as well - it is a crowd favourite when we play live.
It is actually one of the older songs on the album and we decided that we would save it to be the last single of this campaign push. It is definitely one of the fan favourites and if you haven’t heard it already then go and check it out on YouTube.
- I mentioned earlier that you only release your last album in the summer are the plans to go back into the studio soon or are you going to tour this record for a while?
We are going to be touring up to the end of this before, hopefully, popping over to Europe for a small stint earlier next year before coming back to the UK.
The main aim almost now is to get more material and record it in order to put something out before too long. We were demoing some tracks in the studio just last week with Peter Miles, who did the record with us.
So the wheels are definitely turning and we don’t want to wait another three years to put out our next record - we don’t want people to forget about us.
- You have got an every growing fanbase so for those who will be reading this interview do you have a message for them?
Just a huge huge thanks you. I know people it and it sound clichéd but the band is nothing without the fans.
We can sit in our bedrooms and write music to ourselves but until people are gripping hold like they do and… we are very blessed to have such amazing fans. Keep coming to the shows and keep buying the t-shirts and wearing them with pride. Thank you very much.
- Finally what's next for you as the tour comes to an end?
This is the first day of the tour so it is quite sad to be thinking about the end of it.
But are touring until the end of the year and then there will be a little bit of time off over Christmas and then straight back into the saddle in the New Year. We are going over to Europe and then a new record.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw